2005 Fellow Kate Bramson and her colleagues at the Providence Journal have won this year’s New England Associated Press News Executives Association’s Sevellon Brown Award for public service. The Journal’s December 2009 article and others reported how a prominent federal prosecutor got pulled over for suspected drunken driving on Thanksgiving weekend, and got off without being charged with drunken driving.
The stories also won the Rhode Island Press Association’s first place for investigative/analytical news story or series and second place for investigative reporting from NEAPNEA, which gave the Sevellon Brown Award.
Disabled American Veterans Bugle Award
2008 Fellow Kelly Kennedy has won the 2010 Bugle Award from the Disabled American Veterans for her work covering burn pits for the Army Times as well as for her book, “They Fought for Each Other.” The Bugle Award recognizes outstanding reporting of veterans affairs to the American public.
Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism
For their watchdog project, Fatal Care, Gina Barton (’00) of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and colleagues Crocker Stephenson and Kristyna Wentz-Graff won the Casey Medal in the under-200,000-circ. category.
“This team went beyond the story of one child’s death in foster care to discover that 22 additional children died as a result of systemic neglect. The series features in-depth reporting matched with a strong analysis. The sidebars, graphs, photographs and a review of thousands of records add to the stories’ impact. It’s a series that got results, including a new state law that holds welfare officials accountable for the children under their watch.”
NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness
2008 Fellow Kelly Kennedy will receive NAMI’s Outstanding Journalism Award at its conference in early July. The Army Times journalist is the author of “They Fought for Each Other: The Triumph & Tragedy of the Hardest Hit Unit in Iraq.”
John B. Oakes Award
Dart Center Ochberg Fellows Kristen Lombardi (’03) and Kelly Kennedy (’08) each received certificates of merit by judges of The John B. Oakes Award, which recognizes excellence in environmental journalism and is given by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Lombardi, a writer for the Center for Public Integrity, was recognized for “The Hidden Cost of ‘Clean Coal,” which detailed how longwall mining, which yielded 176 million tons of coal in 2007, can have brutal social and environmental consequences. Kennedy, of Military Times, was recognized for courage in breaking news and for following up with a compelling series of more than two dozen stories about the health threats to troops who are exposed to war-zone burn pits.
Sigma Delta Chi Awards
Kristen Lombardi’s series about how rapes are handled on college campuses has won the 2009 Sigma Delta Chi Award for public service in online reporting, which is given by the Society of Professional Journalists. Kim Komenich also won the award in digital media presentation for his work on “The Bay Area Toxic Tour: West Oakland,” published by Newsdesk.org.
Lombardi’s series, “Sexual Assault on Campus: A Frustrating Search for Justice,” was published by the Center for Public Integrity and was funded in part by a grant from the Dart Society.
Komenich provided audio and photography for the stories and videos on pollution and health problems in Oakland. The series was crowdfunded by individuals through Spot.us.
Samuel Chavkin Prize
2009 Ochberg Fellow Hollman Morris, whose work investigating Colombia’s armed conflict and human rights violations has placed him in personal danger, will receive the 2010 Samuel Chavkin Prize for Integrity in Latin American Journalism.
Morris is the editorial director of the investigative news program Contraviaand a native of Colombia. He is also the director and founder of Morris Producciones.
Administered by the North American Congress on Latin America, the Chavkin Prize is awarded every 18 months to an outstanding investigative reporter working in Latin America or the Caribbean exposing injustice and oppression or documenting the struggles for social justice and democracy in the region. The award is given to journalists whose body of work reflects a commitment to social justice in the region.
The Edgar Award
Dave Cullen, a 2002 Fellow who published “Columbine” last year, won The Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in the category of “fact crime.” The awards were presented in New York on April 29.
“Columbine” took 10 years to write. It delves into why the killers did what they did and how the town responded.
The Heywood Broun Award
2000 Fellow Gina Barton’s “Fatal Care” series in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel received recognition from the Newspaper Guild, which named it a runner-up for the 2010 Heywood Broun Award. Named for the crusading New York columnist, the award lauds work that rights social injustice.
The Sidney, April 2010
Clara Germani, the Christian Science Monitor editor who received the 2009 Mimi Award honorable mention, was the project editor on a four-month, five-continent investigative project on carbon offsets that just won the Sidney award for April.
The project, a collaboration of The Monitor and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, blew the cover off scams and ill-thought-out schemes to make consumer-Joes feel less guilt about their carbon emissions.
The Sidney award, given each month by the Sidney Hillman Foundation, recognizes outstanding works of socially conscious journalism. The foundation also awards the annual Hillman Prizes every spring.